Relieved France End Losing Streak

21 August 2012

U20 WOMEN

Christelle Diallo grabbed six rebounds to go along her 15 points, as France out-rebounded Serbia 46-26

Having lost lost three games in a row at the U20 European Championship Women for the very first time, France avoided a fourth successive disappointment and kept their Quarter-Final hopes alive with an excellent 68-44 win against Serbia.

The teams headed into the game having some empathy for each others' predicament with both having endured a poor final quarter in their previous games which ended in defeat.

It was Serbia who continued where they left off against Turkey whereas in stark contrast, France turned the page from their loss to Russia with a fantastic first-half performance.

They were particularly effective during the second quarter when they outscored their opponent 19-10, Christelle Diallo causing some serious match-up problems under the hoop.

This handed them what proved to be an unassailable 37-20 lead and when France underlined their superiority after the restart by taking their advantage beyond the 20 point barrier, it was game over for a Serbian team looking low on energy and short of ideas offensively.

And, with points difference very much a deciding factor in a potential three-way tie on the final day of the Second Round, this was a certainly bad loss for Serbia who couldn't make any significant inroads during the latter stages.

Diallo claimed a game-high 15 points while Margaux Galliou-Loko enjoyed a perfect shooting night with 10 points in just 12 minutes of court-time.